nice steering wheel
I felt good about having a budget and I emailed Judi again. It was mid September now. They still had the boat. They had moved it from the dock out to a mooring buoy. Dock fees were raised from $425 to over $500 a month. I was thinking of how much money they paid just for keeping the boat at the dock.
Judi sent me a few pictures of the interior and warned me that it’s not pretty. They meant to re-build the interior after they moved ashore, but never got around to do it. If I was still interested we could meet them at the boat ramp and check out the boat.
It was a 2 and a half hour ride to get to the marina and Judi was sitting on the back of the truck waiting. Her husband Murray already had the dinghy in the water and was ready to take me out to the boat. Since Judi had warned me not to expect too much, I had told myself not to expect too much. I told myself this was an old boat that’s been neglected and was probably more of a project than I could handle. But on the other hand, I did not want to miss an opportunity. So I did have to go and check it out. After all, it was the biggest boat for the least amount of money I had been offered.
It only took a few minutes and we reached the boat. The first thing I saw was mussels all over the hull. Oh boy, I thought, food for a year. Well, you wouldn’t want to eat them out of the marina. Murray went around the whole boat to show me the outside and as much of the hull as we could see from the water. That boat was big! We went aboard and walked around on deck. I really like the metal guard rails around the boat. There was one section taken off. Hit and run, someone had damaged the corner of the pilot house and the guard rail. Much later I was thinking, that must have been another big boat to hit the roof of the pilot house. Who knows?
We went inside the boat and Murray told me all about the rooms and electronics and what he wanted to fix up. It became clear that that boat was his baby. He had hoped to rig it and sail to Australia some day. Sounds good to me. I took tons of pictures of the boat knowing I wouldn’t remember everything I saw.
Starting at the back, there is a main cabin with its own sink and toilet and closet. Then the engine room holding the 6 cyl Volvo Diesel 106 HP. That’s about twice as much as the boat needs, but Murray got it for a good price back when he needed an engine. I think it can’t hurt to have a slightly bigger engine. I don’t have to run it at full-throttle all the time, but the extra power might come in handy when needed. The engine room also holds the water heater. After the engine room is a ladder to go up into the pilot house. In there are all the electronics like vhf, radar, depth sounder, auto pilot, a big compass. In the back of the pilot house are the washer and dryer.
Going back down and moving forward there is the galley (kitchen) with propane stove, fridge, freezer a nice double sink and many drawers to store stuff. The galley is open to the saloon (living/dining room). There’s a table on one side and just sitting area on the other. The next room is another toilet, which is called a head on a boat. This one even has half a bathtub with shower.
And last but not least another cabin with one bed. Down under the floor are diesel and water tanks, bilge pump and such. Murray pointed out to me where the mast would go, but I can’t remember now. Most things have different names on a boat and I am slowly learning them. As mentioned the kitchen is the galley, the toilet is the head. I’ll start using those words as I learn them.
Murray started the diesel engine without any problems and I was thinking of how I would ever drive a boat that big. There were a lot of small parts and paint that come with the boat. The boat’s name is MurandaJ, but it wasn’t painted anywhere on the boat. It’s a combination of all their names. It definitely is a project, but even without mast and sails, it is a nice big live-aboard and motor boat. A definite upgrade from my fishing jonboat.
Before coming down to look at the boat I had already decided not to make any decision that day. I was just going to look at the boat, go home sleep over it and then decide if I want it or not.
Photo credit: photo by me, Daniel
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